Zinc-Air Batteries for Electric Vehicles

This paper describes a design for an electric vehicle (EV) battery system using a secondary (rechargeable) lead-acid section for power and a recyclable (mechanically replaced) primary zinc-air section for range. This approach optimizes the performance of each battery, resulting in a system with driving performance (acceleration, range, and refueling time) equal to that for internal combustion vehicles (ICVs). The physical characteristics of the system's components are highly compatible with their ICV counterparts, resulting in a substantial reduction in the cost of building prototype vehicles. The overall cost of the rechargeable/recyclable approach is estimated to be equal to that for the traditional single rechargeable battery approach.